Recycled heat from data center in Helsinki will help generate energy

For the people of Helsinki, surfing the Internet will help heat water in their homes. This may sound somewhat bizarre at first, but according to Finnish utility company Helsingin Energia, heat from servers will be recycled and will be used to generate energy and also provide heated water. The heat from the data center known as Academica Oy built by Helsinki IT services will add up to 1% of the total energy generated by Helsingin Energia. The data center will be connected to the utility company’s district heating system which will pump water using pipes to commercial and residential buildings. In this system, cold water is pumped to the data center in order to cool the equipment.

This water then turns warm and is transferred to a pump or a heater which further heats the water and sends it to the heating system. This system will help generate energy to power up 500 large houses and the data center will save up on cooling costs too. This is indeed an innovative idea by the Finnish folk!
[ComputerWorld]